On the Road Again

It’s been a crazy last couple of weeks.

New RV and car tires, RV renovations, Easter and preparing for our summer journey, the crew has been busy lately. But we finally did it and we’re back on the road for our spring/summer trek. We’ll be heading towards the West Coast with Yellowstone and Oregon in site. The plan is to come back east through Canada.

The RV shop recommended a replacement of all the RV tires, yikes! So while Perl girl was getting a new set of wheels, we took the tow vehicle to get inspected. And we were gifted with a big fat rejection sticker. The tires were showing signs of dry rot and a few other minor things. So once again, more money to the tire gods. But the good news is I shouldn’t have to worry about a blowout anytime soon.

Onto the RV renovation. One major change we made was to modify the bunk area. The twins are 14 and while they’re pretty short, they were feeling congested in the bunks. So we decided to convert it into one bed. We raised the upper bunk by about 2 feet. While that doesn’t seem very significant, it really made a huge difference. Now they can sit up in the bunk if they want. The top portion allows for storage. Losing the second bunk really wasn’t that much of an issue as I usually only have one of the twins with me at a time. When the other comes on board, she’d much rather sleep on the couch. It can always be put back to two beds for resale.

I also redid the decor. The teens really have outgrown pink so even though I liked the old privacy curtains, they didn’t. So we went with an arrow theme. Inside it’s foxes/feathers and bears, oh my! I customized the inside sheets (cute but teen approved) to fit the RV bunk. While cutting them up, I used some of the fabric to make a matching curtain for the window. A few other little details and the bunk is teen friendly. I had a lot of fun decorating it with some old and new items.

The second renovation involved manipulating the dinette seats so I could put rolling storage underneath. I saw this on Pinterest and I have to say that the modification was a success. There are a few tweaks I need to make but all in all, I’m very pleased. We removed the side of the dinette seat and put it on hinges. Then we built a little box underneath the dinette to accommodate the plastic bin you see. The bin has wheels underneath that allow it to be rolled in and out for storage. Before this reno, I didn’t use the space because it was such a pain to get to. We had to remove all the dinette cushions which involved removing the seat belts threaded through them and lift the board up to access it.

The last modification was re-enforcing the bed in the master bedroom. It was sagging down into the upper storage bay and I had the RV jack (the one you use when changing a tire!) under there. It would slowly sink and I’d have to go out, open the bay and crank it back up. It was a pain. But no more, hubby reinforced it with wood and it’s as good as new. It was a bad design by Winnebago.

Easter came and went for the crew. Then my husband and daughter headed to China for three weeks to visit relatives. Before we knew it, it was time to head on down the road. The journey to our first stop was long but went fairly well. Well, unless you count the fact that the dinette table broke off as I was driving along. The kids were squawking about what to do while I told them it was a great time for problem solving. Oh the joys. When we arrived at East Harbor State Park, that was another thing to add to my ‘to do’ list. I’m happy to report that ‘operation reattach the table’ was a success.

The main reason for our stop at East Harbor was to take in one of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie. In 2015, we saw Lake Ontario so we’re currently two for five. Our next stop, Indiana Dunes State Park, will add Lake Michigan to the list. So that will leave us Lake Huron and Superior. While at East Harbor, we were able to check out the glacial grooves left behind by a massive glacier that scraped across the landscape. We also visited Marblehead Lighthouse. The seashore reminded me so much of Maine, it was beautiful.

Touching the glacial grooves

We are currently in a perpetual state of spring weather. There’s rain, sometimes a bit of chill followed by beautiful days in the 70’s. The wildflowers line the trails and bright green grass thickens the ground. We saw a snake, some ducklings and deer while hiking some of the trails. It feels great to be back on the road exploring and enjoying the outdoors.

We got a little cheesy at the Cheesehaven, a store dedicated to cheese, meats, candy and other miscellaneous items. Into my cart went six-year-old cheddar, Stewart’s orange creamsicle soda, beef jerky and black shoelace licorice.  I’m happy to report it was all divine! It’s not hard to detect that we’re getting close to Wisconsin with a store dedicated to cheese.

That’s about it for happenings with the crew. I’ll update once we explore Lake Michigan.